Executive Communication Skills

Course Number:

Faculty

Program

MBA

Concentrations

Business Management Communications, Business Ethics

Course Description

As you advance up the
managerial ladder you’re likely to find yourself facing irate shareholders or
analysts or legislators or consumers or—worst of all in the eyes of many
executives—journalists and broadcasters who are covering your company’s
relationships with one or more of these groups. Representing your company in
external forums is a major executive responsibility but many executives do it
poorly. When they speak to external audiences and sometimes to their own
employees, executives frequently alienate their listeners. According to recent
polls only one in four people believes that most business leaders are honest
and business executives have joined car dealers and HMO managers as the people
least trusted by a cross-section of Americans. In this course we’ll talk about
why this happens and how to fix it. You will get intense practical training in
communicating a concise message under tense or adversarial conditions. You will
learn techniques for handling tough questions and for getting your own
point-of-view across in any forum where you need to think fast on your feet.

You will also learn to
use your voice and body language to reinforce the message you put into words.

We use the process of
being interviewed by a reporter as the major vehicle for developing and
strengthening your executive communication skills. In the process you will
learn how to—

· get across to an
audience a message that you want to convey about an issue your organization is
grappling with